I don't know why so many of you are making comments that you wouldn't want to get on Pootie's bad side. I know it was not her intent to do anything but defend Bansai against these new players who think he must be cheating because he has such fast solve times. I thought she showed great restraint in her response. She was neither mean nor rude, just honest. I am sick and tired of these new people who come on and play a couple hundred puzzles with slow solve times and immediately assume that the players with fast times are cheating somehow. What they may not realize is that many of these players who do have fast solve times have been playing for a really long time, years even. I don't by any means consider myself in the same league as Bansai, Lurker, Altoid, or any of the others with fast times, but I do know I have improved my own time considerably since I started playing on this site. My average solve time was probably in the 100+ second range in the beginning, and that was three years ago. It really takes a lot of practice, and you develop the ability to recognize word patterns, as well as what a quote by a specific person might be. Also, you get a second chance as puzzles will come up more than once in the rotation. I have arthritis and am not a fast typist, but even I have on occasion beaten a record held by Bansai, and I can assure you that I don't use multiple computers or have a program that helps me solve faster. Just saying......

I can only speak for myself Lily and getting on Pootie's bad side was meant as a joke. I love how she flew to his defense...nothing more...nothing less Can someone explain to me what the wreath up in the right-hand corner under how many post I have signifies???

Pevans the symbol is an ICQ icon. Its an instant messaging icon, I believe.
Somewhere in your profile under instant messaging you might have typed some
information beside the ICQ. Just delete it if you dont use it.

Pevans01, I'm sorry you couldn't fix it. The color of the wreath does coordinate beautifully with your rose. We're renovating our kitchen, and as you can see, my mind has been focused on colors. LOL! I spoke too soon because I don't see the wreath anymore.

I wander around this site and enjoy the quotes, comments and now the biograpies. I never (seldom) know what my time is. I mostly play with hints. I'll never have time to be come a competitor. If I did have that much time on my hands, I'd do something else.

Before there were author bios included, I used to Google or Wikipedia the names to explore the person who said that idea.

I love Criptograms, my parents used to solve them in the Boston paper when I was little. Mom explained the crosswords when I was 5. My aunt Florence told me about the odd words that we don't use in regular speech. We called them crosword puzzle words.

Thank you Stephen but what was it??? ROTFLOL @ you Lily!!! MSUNSHINE...I find cryptos easier than those crosswords. I still don't use those words and 5 years old was back in the 50's!!! NEVER mind Stephen...found what it was in my settings!!! Thanks again!!!